NOELBAKI REFUGEE CAMP, Indonesia—Sitting on a rickety wooden bed
frame in a cramped corner of her barracks, with only a sheet to provide
privacy from her neighbors, Augustina Said spends her days hoping she and
her family can return to the life they had in East Timor. To their freshly
painted house. To their television, refrigerator and comfortable
furniture.

But Said, 41, is afraid to leave this squalid encampment of more than
5,000 refugees, near Kupang on the western coast of western Timor, and
return to newly independent East Timor. In the referendum to determine
East Timor's future last August, she, her husband and their four children
were on the losing side, advocating publicly that it remain an Indonesian
territory.

"If we return, they will kill us," she said of the
independence supporters who dominate East Timor's population. "They
don't like us anymore."

A few buildings over, Maria Anapinto, 37, is equally afraid. She voted
for an independent East Timor and desperately wants to return, but she
said menacing bands of pro-Indonesia militiamen continue to prowl the
camp, warning people like her not to head back.

"They tell us that it's not safe," she said. "The
militias say they will return to take back East Timor."

Anapinto and Said arrived in western Timor seven months ago with an
estimated 250,000 other East Timorese, fleeing the violence that enveloped
the territory after its residents voted overwhelmingly for independence.
Although 150,000 have trickled back, aid workers estimate 100,000 people
like Anapinto and Said are still holed up in several dozen western Timor
camps, trapped by a culture of fear that shows no sign of abating.

U.N. officials had expected a solution to the refugee problem months
ago, with independence supporters rushing home and those who favored
integration with Indonesia either returning or settling elsewhere in the
archipelago. But continued militia intimidation and worries about
retribution have complicated the process. Officials now worry that the
ramshackle camps, where almost 1,000 refugees have died from disease, are
evolving into permanent housing, creating a group of people with no
country to call home.

"A lot of them are settling in for the long haul," said Craig
Sanders, who directs the U.N. refugee agency's operations in western
Timor. "For a variety of reasons, they're still too afraid to return
home."

The United Nations and the Indonesian government want the refugees to
move on--either back to East Timor or elsewhere in Indonesia--but they
differ on how to make that happen.

The Indonesian government has promised to move militiamen out of the
area. But it also has threatened to stop providing refugees food and other
aid, a move that is drawing stiff condemnation from humanitarian officials
and diplomats.

"It's like they're putting a gun to the head of the refugees to
force them to move," said one Western diplomat in Jakarta, the
Indonesian capital.

The U.S. ambassador to Indonesia, Robert Gelbard, warned that any aid
cutoff would be "a serious mistake" that could lead to a
"strong reaction from the international community."

Whether a halt in aid from Indonesia will have a significant impact on
the refugees is unclear because, Sanders said, most food, medicine and
other support comes from international organizations.

But he and other U.N. officials acknowledge that the situation is
becoming increasingly problematic. "We don't want these camps to last
forever, but at the same time, we don't want people to be coerced into
making a decision about where they are going to live," Sanders said.
"They need to be allowed to decide without anyone pressuring
them."

That is rare in the camps. Although militia members have been largely
disarmed by the Indonesian military, those who lurk in the barracks have
embarked on a campaign to persuade pro-independence refugees not to leave,
telling them that there is not enough food in East Timor and that the
multinational peacekeeping force there has been raping women by the
hundreds. A militia umbrella group called UNTAS has even begun printing a
two-page newsletter that warns refugees not to go home because of
"saddening and disgraceful conditions" in East Timor.

The militia groups have tailored a different message to those who sided
with Indonesia in the election, warning them that vengeful,
pro-independence East Timorese will kill them as soon as they cross the
border.

U.N. officials and military analysts believe that militia leaders, who
were recruited by the Indonesian military before the election but were
mostly abandoned after the defeat, view the refugees as a bargaining chip.
"It's a group that has lost everything," Girmai Wondimu, a U.N.
field officer in western Timor, said of the militia members. "They
have to hold on to these hostages."

Some political analysts and diplomats argue that the Indonesian
government needs to break up the militia groups and move the leaders away
from western Timor. "The solution to this problem still largely rests
with the Indonesians," said Gary Gray, chief of the U.S. diplomatic
mission in East Timor.

To counter the militia groups' propaganda, U.N. workers have embarked
on a public relations blitz of their own. They are making their pitch on
five radio stations, and are also videotaping interviews with returning
refugees and playing them in the camps. They also are encouraging refugees
to attend "family reunions" on the border, where they can talk
to relatives who live in East Timor and hear firsthand about the living
conditions there.

But the U.N. workers toe a fine line in encouraging pro-Indonesia
refugees to return. Although East Timorese independence leaders have said
they favor reconciliation with Indonesia supporters who did not
participate in the violence, several dozen who have returned have been
beaten by their neighbors, and at least one has been killed, according to
U.N. officials.

Despite the risks, some Indonesia supporters have been heading back in
recent weeks, reasoning that the prospect of getting roughed up in East
Timor is still better than living in the camps. "The militias in the
camps kept telling us they would shoot us if we didn't do as they
said," said Fernando Da Costa, 25, as he boarded a ship bound for
East Timor from the western Timor city of Kupang.

That same message has persuaded others to stay. Vinancio Gomes, a
former soldier, said he would love to leave his cramped bunk at the
Tuapukan refugee camp but has heard of a letter circulating through the
camp that details how some returning former soldiers were killed--a story
aid workers believe was concocted by militia groups.

"This may not be a good place to live," Gomes said, "but
at least nobody is going to kill me here."

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